Have you run that PC through a terminal service lately? It is possible that somehow the remote session "hung" in that mode. Try logging on as a different user and see if the problem recurs.
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Mehper C. PalavuzlarJul 6 '10 at 13:51

Thanks for the suggestion, but the machine was never used with t/s. Some combination of uninstalling & manually sweeping out anything NVIDIA related then reinstalling the drivers seems to have fixed it.
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Alex KJul 8 '10 at 9:58

2

I have just upvoted your question as the image amuses me... :-D
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Tom WijsmanJul 9 '10 at 16:36

4 Answers
4

I had this problem. Went into the NVidia control panel and ran the Display Optimisation wizard. After that it was fine. Had to arrange my monitors again (so they were in the right order) and set my primary display, but it was fine after that.

I had this problem after installing Air Display and adding my iPad as an additional monitor. Even when I was not transmitting to the ipad-as-monitor via the Air Display app, Windows still had the ipad as an active monitor with my desktop extended to it. Once I unchecked Extend desktop to the ipad and clicked OK, office returned to the usual colors. I can switch it back forth with just the one setting, no restarts or driver re-installs. Also, the ipad was set in windows to 32-bit color, and it's obviously not a 256-color display, so not sure why this is happening.

PS: Windows indicated the ipad as "(default monitor)" so maybe it just thought the monitor was only 256-color-capable and downgraded the office apps to match?